Features |
February 5, 2013

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AngelList offers a fresh look at industry comp

While the internet has ushered in an open office – no self-respecting startup would dream of cubicles or a dress code – there remains one aspect of the workplace hidden away, talking money.

With a few notable exceptions, the open discussion of salary is still verboten in the workplace of the future. Which makes an app like AngelList’s newly released Startup Salaries & Equity Finder both an invaluable tool and a great way to feed curiosity.

As part of our reportorial duty (and out of a natural nosiness), we spent a few hours poking around the site – which allows you to filter by job, location, skillset, and market to find the salary dispersal.

Some of our initial findings:

There’s an Apple bump. A mid-level iOS developer can look forward to an average salary of 98k nationwide, whereas a similarly experienced Android dev can only expect an average salary. More notably, the number of available iOS jobs is more than double that of Android.

If fashion’s not your passion, forget it. Of all the markets AngelList tracks, average salaries in the fashion industry rank next-to-last (hardware takes the prize). And forget about equity – it’s the worst in class.

Consider Colorado. Boulder ranks third in average salary, behind only Silicon Valley and San Francisco. Now consider the fact that the cost of living in San Francisco is nearly 50% higher than in Boulder – perhaps it’s time to rethink your relationship with the cold.

Don’t mess with the number crunchers. Thanks to the efforts of big data boosters like Nate Silver and Chris Anderson – andwhoever first coined the term “big data” – skills here come with big rewards. The industry average is $103k and can top $120k.

Looking to feed your salary envy? Check out the site for yourself here.